Sunday, March 2, 2014

Online Cyber Security Courses In India Need To Be Encouraged

Cyber security of any nation is dependent upon its
skilled cyber force. India has exceptionally good information
technology related talent but when it comes to cyber security
professionals, India is still lagging far behind than other
countries. This is primarily due to defective cyber security and
education policies of India and the poor implementation of already
scant policies in this crucial field.

India has also not encouraged private institutions
and educational institutions to take a lead in the cyber security
education and skills development field. On top of it, the students
are still not sure whether they need skills
or degree while pursuing cyber security education in
India. A dominant majority of the students that graduate from even
premier technical education institutions are not fit to be absorbed
by the industry as they may have the degree but they lack the
essential skills needed for the industry. Something is gravely
missing at the national education policy level in India.

Recently India released the cyber
security policy but the same must be integrated into and
part of the national
security policy of India opines Praveen
Dalal the leading techno legal expert of Asia. Presently
this is not happening and we have cyber security initiatives in India
that are not operating in harmony and coordination with each other.
These policy deficiencies, along with defective education policy of
India, have also affected the cyber skills development initiatives of
India and this is the reason why we do not have a well organised and
properly managed online cyber skills development initiative in India,
informs Dalal.

Due to these shortcomings cyber security in India is
still maturing where both the legal framework and government policies
are trying to accommodate the growing requirements of cyber security.
We have very few cyber security research and education centre in
India as on date that are tirelessly trying to bridge the cyber
security skills gap in India.

However, lack of political will and defective
educational policies of India are not allowing Indian educational and
skill development initiatives to flourish and make major difference.
Even the efforts of national skills development corporation (NSDC)
have failed to make much difference in this field.

Recently the Supreme Court of India debarred the
AICTE from regulating technical educational institutions in India.
The Indian government is finalising new norms that will empower
universities to regulate around 10,000 institutes in the country.
Under the new regulations, all technical institutes need to be
affiliated to UGC-recognised universities. The Union Human Resource
Development (HRD) Ministry is also planning to introduce amendments
in the existing laws to restore the powers of AICTE and reverse the
judgment of Supreme Court. It seems our HRD Ministry and Indian
government has wandered much beyond the turf of skills and
capabilities development and is flexing their muscles more on the
side of power tussle in the education field than doing the needful.